


Dear Baxter Hansen

by ToastyBoi17



Category: Dear Evan Hansen - Pasek & Paul/Levenson, Hazbin Hotel (Web Series)
Genre: Broadway, Multi, Musicals
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-14
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 17:54:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27560329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToastyBoi17/pseuds/ToastyBoi17
Summary: Baxter is a lonely teen with only one family friend and a huge crush on Niffty Murphy, who's a year below him. What happens when he's mistaken for doing something he never did and gets caught in a web of lies?
Relationships: Alastor & Husk & Niffty (Hazbin Hotel), Angel Dust & Cherri Bomb (Hazbin Hotel), Baxter & Charlie Magne, Baxter/Niffty (Hazbin Hotel), Charlie Magne & Vaggie
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	1. Chapter 1: Anybody Have a Map?

'Dear Baxter Hansen'

That's how his letter would always start. Greeting, first name, last name. Baxter wasn't his real first name. It was Evan. His mom, Charlie, wanted him to be Baxter. But his dad wanted Evan, after him.

His dad won the battle, according to Baxter's birth certificate and drivers license. But his mom won the war, as he's only ever been called Evan, except by teachers on the first day of school. Which leads us to today's issue, and the body of the letter.

'Today is going to be a good day and here's why.'

Baxter was instructed by his therapist, Mr. Trench, to start writing these letters to himself every day for a few years now. He never understood what to put here. How can you describe a good day when it's not a good day? Especially since on this day he'd be starting his first day of Senior Year.

He heard a knock on his door, followed by his mom as she walked in. She was holding a $20 bill.

"So you just decided not to eat last night?" She asked.

Charlie was a nurse working hard to provide for her and Baxter. His dad had left when he was younger. So last night, Charlie was working late as usual at the hospital. 

"Well, I-" Baxter started

"I thought we talked about this! Ordering on the phone isn't requiring any social contact!" Charlie said, sitting at the edge of his bed.

"No, because then you have to answer the door and try to make small talk as they count the change that you're not gonna get half of because then you have to tip them and then you have to grab your things and awkwardly say goodbye and-" Baxter's started rambling.

"Just, next time, please try!" Charlie said. She thought for a moment and glanced at his laptop. "Have you been writing those letters to yourself? 'Dear Baxter Hansen, today is going to be a good day and here's why!'"

Baxter would normally skip them, but today he had an appointment with Dr. Trench, so he couldn't show up without a letter. 

"I started one...," He muttered, no emotion in his voice.

"Those letters are important, honey! They're gonna help you build your confidence!"

"I guess..."

Charlie thought to herself on what to say.

"Can we try to have an optimistic outlook? Huh? Can we buck up just enough to see the world won't fall apart? Maybe this year we decide, we're not giving up before we tried! This year we make a new start!" Charlie sang as she looked around and grabbed a sharpie.

"Hey, I know! You can go around today and ask the other kids to sign your cast! How 'bout that?"

Baxter had worked as an apprentice Park Ranger in the summer. He fell out of a tree and broke his arm. Park Ranger Blitzo wasn't happy that he was climbing a tree on the clock, but hey, at least he drove Baxter to the hospital.

Baxter looked at the ground and took the sharpie.

"Perfect," He said, not looking at his mother.

"I'm proud of you already!" She said, smiling. She hugged him.

"Oh, good," He said, half hugging her back.

Charlie stood up and looked at the bottle of Ativan on his desk.

"You good on refills?" She asked Baxter.

Baxter always considered this her way of starting to leave a conversation. He nodded and she walked out.

Once she was out of the room, her smile faded.

"Another stellar conversation for the scrapbook. Another struggle as I'm reaching for the right thing to say. I'm kinda coming up empty can't find my way to you," She sang once more. "Anybody have a map? Anybody maybe happen to know how the hell to do this? I don't know if you can tell but this is me just pretending to know! So where's the map? I need a clue. Cause the scary truth is I'm flying blind and I'm making this up as I go," 

Charlie left the Hansen house to work. Over at the Murphy's house was a different story. 

"It's your senior year Husker you are not missing the first day!" Vaggie said to her son, Husk. He was at the table with his sister, Niffty, and his father, Alastor.

"I already said, I'd go tomorrow!" Husk replied, annoyed.

"He doesn't listen, dear. Look at him. He's probably drunk!" Alastor piped up.

"He's definitely drunk," Niffty added. 

"Fuck you!" Husk yelled at her. To which Niffty responded the same back.

"I don't want you going to school drunk Husker!" Vaggie rolled her eyes.

"Perfect, so then I won't go. Thanks mom," He said, smiling to himself as he went up to his room.

"Another masterful attempt ends with disaster," Vaggie muttered to herself.

Alastor checked his radio, "Interstate's already jammed," He muttered.

"Pour another cup of coffee and watch it all crash and burn!" Vaggie muttered again.

Niffty went to pour milk into her cereal. "Husk finished the milk!" She groaned.

"It's a puzzle, it's a maze! I try to steer through it a million ways but each day's another wrong turn!" Vaggie sighed.

Alastor stood up and checked the time. "I should get going." He said, walking out.

Niffty got up and followed him, "If Husker's not ready, I'm leaving without him!"

Vaggie sat down in the same frustrated state as Charlie.

"Anybody have a map? Anybody maybe happen to know how the hell to do this? I don't know if you can tell but this is me just pretending to know," The two tired mothers sang.

"So where's the map?" Charlie asked herself from her car.

"I need a clue!" Vaggie groaned from the dining room in her house.

They then sang once more.

"Cause the scary truth is I'm flying blind. I'm flying blind. I'm flying blind and I'm making this up as I go! As I go!"


	2. Chapter 2: First Day Back

Baxter was finished at his locker but he just stood there. Pretending to look for something to pass the void of time before the bell was to ring.

Blitzo Oxman (the "o" being silent in his first name since the junior year) was described as a "master hanger-arounder" by Baxter. His legs shoulder distanced apart, a gun on his back (which frightened Baxter a bit), and he wore these weird sunglasses. But they gave him the "Blitzo Oxman look."

Baxter wanted to do what Mr. Trench and his mother kept asking him to do. Engage with other people, but it wasn't in his DNA. When he got onto the school bus that morning, everyone was either doing hard drugs, fighting, or talking amongst themselves.

He shut his locker and turned to head to class, keeping his head low enough to avoid eye contact, but high enough to find his way around. He saw many people in the hallway, but he didn't bother asking them to sign his cast.

He stopped at the water fountain, already forgetting what he was going to try to do.

'Let people see you,' his mother's voice said in his head. He wondered how to do that? Cause a crazy chemical reaction in the science lab? Actually...

'No!' He thought. 'None of that!'

He bent down to drink some water, but felt someone standing by him. He looked up to see that there was a person standing next to him. Her name was Cherri Beck. 

"Hey bitch, how was your summer?" She asked, leaning against the wall.

She sat in front of Baxter the previous year for pre calc, but they had never talked to each other.

"M-my summer?" Baxter asked, in case she wasn't talking to him.

"Mine was badass! I gained three pieces of territory after 90 hour fights!" She bragged

"Yeah. That's, wow. That's-"

"Even though I was sooo busy, I still screwed around with friends. Or, well, some acquaintances, more like. There was this one girl named Millie, or My-lee. I couldn't hear her that well," She shrugged. "Then there's...."

Baxter was too lost in his own thoughts to listen to Cherri. He was confused as to why she was talking to him. The only time he's ever heard her voice was when she was shouting or fighting with the teachers or a student. Which she did a lot. In some way, Cherri and Baxter were similar in a very small way. They both walked around school, barely in the background. 

'Seize the day!' Charlie's voice rings once more

"D-do you maybe want to-" Baxter started, lifting his cast up.

"Holy shiiiit!" Cherri says. "What happened to your arm?"

Baxter starts to take out a sharpie from his backpack. "I-i broke it. I was-"

"Oh, really?" Cherri interrupts. "Before I went, my grandma broke her hip getting into the bathtub. I remember the doctors saying that was the beginning of the end. Because then she died. The bitch went to heaven, though. So she's not here."

"Oh, that's terrible!"

"Eh, not like it she didn't suffer," Cherri shrugged. "Happy first day!"

She skipped off, knocking the sharpie out of Baxter's hand. Baxter bent down to pick it up, only to come up to a familiar face. Angel Kleinman.

"Is it weird to be the first person in history to break their arm from jerking off too much, or do you consider that an honor?" Angel said, a bit too loud for Baxter's comfort level. "Paint me the picture, short stuff. You're in your bedroom. Lights off. Smooth jazz in the background. You've got Niffty Murphy's weird social media up on your computer or whatever gadget you were using."

Baxter and Angel Dust had history. His mother sold real estate and helped Charlie find a new place for her and Baxter when Baxter's dad left. For a few years, the Kleinmans would invite the Hansens over frequently for swimming, Jewish holidays and Baxter even went to Angel's Bar Mitzvah.

"Do you want to know what really happened?" Baxter asked.

"Not really," Angel shrugged.

Baxter couldn't help it, though. He felt like he needed to get it out there. To tell someone.

"What happened is, I was climbing a tree. And I fell."

Angel bursts out laughing. "You fell out of a tree? What are you, little shit? An acorn?"

"You know hownI was working as an apprentice park ranger this summer?"

"No. Why the hell would I know that?"

"Well, anyway, I'm some sort of a tree expert now. Not to brag, but I saw this incredible fourty-foot-tall oak tree and I started climbing it and then I just..."

"Fell?" Angel fills in the blank.

"Yeah, except it's a funny concept. Because there was this solid ten minutes after I fell when I was just lying there on the ground, waiting for someone to come get me. 'Any second now,' I kept telling myself. 'Any second now. Here they come.'"

"Well? Did they?"

"No. Nobody came. That's what's humorous!"

"Holy shit," Angel rolls his eyes, looking embarrassed for Baxter.

Baxter knew how pathetic it sounded that he waited and waited and waited for someone to come and help him. There was a lot going on in his head, though. So much that he forgot about the water fountain and he had water stains on his shirt. He still didn't make it to the first period at this point, where he'd have to answer to "Evan" for at least 45 minutes.

Well, that's what happens when you try to make conversation with Angel Kleinman, who once laughed during a lesson on the Holocaust. Even though he swore he was thinking of something else other than the terrifying pictures. But since the spider demon hasn't walked away just yet, Baxter decided to make conversation by stealing Cherri's question.

"H-how was your summer?" Baxter asked.

"Well, my bunk dominated in Capture the Flag and I got to second-base-below-the-dick with this guy from a different circle who's going to be, like, in I.M.P. or something. So, yeah, does that answer your question?"

"Actually," Baxter started, the sharpie in hand. "Do you want to sign my cast?"

Angel laughs once more. "Why are you asking me?"

"I-i'm not sure…because we're friends?" Baxter asked, very little hope in his voice.

"We're family friends," Angel rolls his eyes. "That's a whole different thing and you know it."

'Is it, though?' Baxter thought to himself. They've hung out together several times and Angel taught him how to give a proper blowjob, even though Baxter didn't want to hear it.

"Tell your mom to tell my mom I was nice to you, or else my parents won't pay for my car insurance," Angel said before walking away. 

Baxter sighed, wondering why he still talks to Angel at all. He was kind of a dick.

Baxter made it to class, eventually. Just as the bell was ringing. He sat closest to the door, which was out of sight and close to an exit. Just as he liked it. A wave of accomplishment washed over him as he realized that maybe that day wasn't going to be so bad after all.


End file.
